Quick Arguments Against Religion

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Do you think I'm going to hell? If yes, why? Why would God condemn me to eternal torture just for not believing him in the face of a huge lack of evidence? Why did he create me with my questioning, rational mind ...

Quick Arguments Against Religion

ALWAYS point people who use the "open mindedness" argument here to this video
Mine goes like this (assuming I'm talking to a christian): Your religion teaches that if you do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior you will burn for eternity in hell. More or less. No matter if you are a good person, or are equally devout in another faith. The religion you have as an adult is hugely dependent on the time and place of your birth. If God chose to have you born today to a poor family in India, your chances of converting to christianity to be saved are near zero. If you were born in South America before the conquistador's came, you were not going to hear about Jesus. In essence, God chooses certain people to burn for eternity and they have no say in the matter.

Religion is like football. Everyone wants to believe their home team is special, but the fact is they only think so because they were born there.

there is no credible evidence for the existence of god. two things are generally proffered as evidence of god, scripture and the natural world (argument from perceived design).

1) scripture is mere hearsay, or as more accurately stated by thomas paine: "hearsay upon hearsay". hearsay is generally inadmissible in state and federal court because it is notoriously unreliable. if hearsay isn't reliable enough for use to adjudicate simple disputes, it certainly isn't reliable enough to prove absurd stories about a god upon which you think i should base my life.

2) the natural world provides no more evidence for the existence of your god than it does for the thousands of gods imagined throughout history, which is to say, none. our ignorance relating to precisely how this all came about doesn't justify your speculation that a wizard did it.

I like to play the morality card, e.g. what motivates you to be a good person? If the answer is religion, cue argument about people with different religions (or no religion) still being good people, thus morality does not come from religion. So, what's the point of religion then?
If they bring in heaven and hell, I counter by saying that if there is a god, I would hope that he would judge people on their actions (i.e. morality) rather than their superficial beliefs/practices.

Do you think I'm going to hell? If yes, why? Why would God condemn me to eternal torture just for not believing him in the face of a huge lack of evidence? Why did he create me with my questioning, rational mind if I was going to be punished for exercising it? If no, then there's no reason to bother believing in him anyway.

Do you believe in Zeus? Do you believe in FSM? How about unicorns or fairies? How about Xorplax, a god I just made up? Why not?... Well that's why I don't believe in your god, and why you shouldn't either.

I want to believe as many true things as possible and not believe as many things that aren't true as possible. The best way to do this I have come across is the scientific method. I require evidence to substantiate claims, and a preponderance of evidence to substantiate extraordinary claims.

Faith is a weakness. Faith is the excuse we give ourselves to believe something when there is no good reason to. Faith actively stands in the way of looking for evidence and seeking further knowledge. Instead of faith, let us use reasonable expectation based on observation, and use hope for the things we cannot control.

All religious beliefs are so far objectively unjustifiable. If you can justify yours, please do so. Personal experience is fine for you, but know that if that is your only basis for belief, you have no footing on which to convince others your religion is valid; it is entirely possible you have misinterpreted your experience, or that your senses were unwittingly impaired at the time.